The Captain Conundrum

Happy Gameweek 1 deadline day! By now, most of you would have changed your team 700,000 times, argued amongst your friends about who the “must haves” are, and discarded players with question marks.

Will they start?

Are they injured?

Close to a transfer?

My advice is, if there’s a question mark in your head, get rid of them. Now is not the time to be taking punts…

Anyhow, I’m here to talk captains. The first choice of Captain has to be sensible, you won’t be throwing it onto someone like Luke Shaw, because he’ll probably dislocate his wrist trying to put the armband on.

Each week I’ll be bringing you my top 3 picks, and for those of you with big balls (or other genders genitals) an outsider that could be a great shout.

On with the show…

3. Harold Kane (12.5)

After finishing with a whopping 7 goals in 2 games, giving him a consecutive shiny golden boot, Harry has looked sharp in pre-season. The biggest question mark is “Can he play at Wembley?” – well he’s scored against Juventus at that very ground very recently. It’s a legitimate question, but if you’ve already opted to spend the big bucks on having him in your team, you’ve already made your decision.

An away trip to Newcastle isn’t ideal, promoted teams will always put up a fight upon entering the Premier League, but it’s worth remembering, it’s still only Newcastle. Harry eats team like this for fun.

2. Sergio Aguero (11.5)

It’s almost like we’ve forgotten that Sergio was practically a must have for the last three years. Let’s not hold last season against him, where he spent half a dozen games sitting on the bench for being a mad bastard, and spent a little longer being injured. He’s still the main striker of the team with the most attacking intent. Yes, there is a lot more competition for his place these days, but he’ll have a point to prove, and City quashed any transfer talk within seconds. Sergio is their main guy, at the very least until the Champion League kicks into play.

Similar to Harry, City start their campaign to newly promoted side in Brighton. Brighton are a MUCH more organised outfit than Newcastle but City have looked rampant in pre-season, and Aguero was shining throughout. I’m expecting big things…

1. Romelu Lukaku

Ok ok, I’ll really try and not have him as captain every single week, but it’s hard. There are certain things that make a captains pick easier every week;

Form: Red hot all pre-season

Fixture: A home tie against a mid-table unorganised rabble of misfits

The two biggest criticisms of Lukaku are “he has a poor touch” and “can he do it in big games?” – Well he can, because he scored against Real Madrid and terrorised them, and who cares if his first touch is bad if his first touch usually ends up in the back of the net?

West Ham will come to play, Bilic is never one to have them sit back and defend. He plays to win, and with the attacking pace at United, he’ll get chances straight away. Lock and Load.

The Outsider

The first game of the season is usually a tight affair. Interestingly since the EPL began there has been 11% more clean sheets on opening day than usual, and 38% of all games have been decided by no more than 1 goal, outrageous.

So, my outside pick is Marcos Alonso. Chelsea should easily keep a clean sheet against Burnley at home, and if any defender will register attacking returns, it’s Marcos.

12 points (plus any bonuses) from your captain to kick off the season could be very useful indeed.

Best of luck in week 1 everyone. Only another 100,000 team changes to go in under 12 hours!